Buffett, the billionaire investor who runs Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA), said Tuesday at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington that the nation's tax code "has gotten distorted to a huge extent," by levying higher taxes on secretaries and janitors than on CEOs and private equity whiners.
A tax cut for low-income people could boost consumer spending at a time of high unemployment and fading government stimulus funds. But such a shift might not play well with the Tea Party types who have made an issue of the fact that 47% of U.S. households paid no federal income tax last year.